Ethics in Louisiana

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America's most laid-back political culture acquires a few rules

EARL LONG, Louisiana's notorious ex-governor, is best remembered for dating a stripper, winning an election while confined to an asylum and crafting some of the sharpest political aphorisms of his time. For instance: “Someday Louisiana is gonna get good government. And they ain't gonna like it.”

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The state's current governor, Bobby Jindal, is hoping “the Earl” may have been wrong about that. Mr Jindal, America's first governor of Indian-American descent, has just got most of what he wanted from a special session of the legislature that he convened about a month after taking office in January. The session had one simple goal: to improve ethics standards in a state that has become synonymous with scandal and graft.

Things got off to a bad start. Not long before the session began, it emerged that Mr Jindal's campaign team had failed to report properly a campaign contribution from the Republican Party. Mr Jindal brushed this off as a technicality, but it made a stark contrast to his promises to deal sternly with transgressors.

Then, on the eve of the legislative session, came another gaffe: a top Jindal staffer gave his brother a set of sought-after tickets to a concert in New Orleans. Small potatoes, perhaps, but an act that went directly against a Jindal proposal to forbid members of the legislature from accepting freebies of that sort. Happily for Louisiana, Mr Jindal's proposals have mostly become law anyway.

Most elected officials (all those representing 5,000 people or more, except judges) must now disclose all their sources of income. Public officials are barred from state contracts. And, among smaller victories, legislators may no longer let lobbyists buy them meals costing more than $50. Galatoire's is out.

Louisiana being Louisiana, a session focused on ethics was not without its hiccups. An effort to strip pensions from lawmakers convicted of crimes went nowhere, as did another to bar cash contributions to political campaigns. There were cringe-worthy moments, too—for instance, during the debate on the bill limiting meal-tabs to $50, one New Orleans legislator complained that such a low ceiling was going to limit her to free meals at Taco Bell.

Early notices are good. The Centre for Public Integrity, based in Washington, DC, has just given Louisiana 99 out of a possible 100 points in a ranking of public-disclosure requirements for state legislators; putting its financial-disclosure law on a par with America's best, where it was previously among the worst. But it will take some time to answer the bigger question: whether changes to the lawbooks will have any real and lasting effect on America's most laid-back political culture.